American Colin Morikawa avoided slips on Sunday at Club Royal St George, stopping four birds to win the British Open twice before his closest pursuit.
The 24-year-old Morikawa signs a final card of 66 giving him a final payout of 265 (-15). He thus became the first golfer in history to win two different Grand Slam tournaments on his first try, after winning the PGA Championship last year.
And his grand slam titles 25 years ago give him a place in a host of options. Only Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Seif Ballesteros and Jack Nicklaus have achieved this feat before.
Having started his career in 2019, California has now racked up five PGA wins.
Hughes in combat
He is also Spieth (66) who finished the event in second place. Two strikes behind Morikawa before entering the final round, however, it was a more eventful day than his opponent.
If the champion of the 2017 edition of this tournament also had four birds, he nevertheless committed two trees on the fourth and sixth flags before returning to normal with an eagle on the seventh hole.
As captain after three rounds, South African Louis Oosthuizen was also struggling with the nine, and never managed to catch up after that. He finished the Open Championship in third place and tied with Spaniard John Ram, at 269 (-11).
Canadian Mackenzie Hughes (69) had his career best Grand Slam result, finishing the competition sixth, at 272 (-8). Having avoided the ax for only the fourth time in his career, he previously showed a 15th place finish on his record, which he earned this year at the US Open.
Corey Conners (73) couldn’t keep up the pace he showed in the first three days. He had to finish 15th in the final standings – 11 places down from the day before – thanks to a performance of 275 (-5).
And the other two Canadian rivals, Adam Hadwin and Richard T. Lee, couldn’t avoid the ax on Friday.
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